LIVING IN THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE

After watching Emily Blunt [a British actress, if you're unaware] on Leno tonight I couldn't resist the urge to speak in an English accent . . . and so I've been doing just that ever since. It happens sometimes.

I also recently stumbled across these cute pictures of my niece from a few years back,

and the combination of these things has got me thinking.

How fun would life be if we constantly, unabashedly let the real world and the world of make-believe collide?! If people did converse with others in accents (that are not their own). . .in public. . .just for the heck of it? If someone who had always been tempted to don a Superman outfit underneath their blase business suit in order to feel a bit like a superhero themselves did just that? If someone who needed a little extra "oomph" to run faster/farther pretended that they were being chased by a dinosaur?

True, the likelihood of people going overboard is pretty much guaranteed. But still, why do we have to forgo all of our make-believing just because we aren't adorable little five year old fairy explorers anymore? Perhaps letting our imaginations have a little more say in our day to day life may be exactly what each of us need. If nothing else, it'd at least be highly entertaining.

NIGHTY NIGHT

What is it about the night that beckons thoughts, feelings, moments so different from those that exist during the day? Is it the darkness closing in around us, shrouding us from the transparency of the day? Is it the freedom from our daytime responsibilities? Or is it simply that by nightfall we've been up for so long that our brains and bodies don't know how to function in a "normal" capacity?

.

Ever since I was a wee-one, nights and nighttime endeavors have varied quite greatly from their daytime counterparts. Any unidentified noise that typically would be shrugged off during the day, at night, becomes someone with ill intentions lurking just outside my door. Projects that call for my undivided attention receive just the opposite while the sun is high in the sky, but once the moon replaces the sun suddenly my focus kicks in and my best work is done [this reality was the bane of my existence throughout my years of school]. Idealistic dreams seem attainable and keep me filled with hope in the waking hours, but when I should be sleeping my mind becomes clouded with over the top rationalizing that gives way to anxiety. And still, at other times the expansive night sky, dotted with stars, affords me peace, calm, and a sense of (yet another) fresh start that rarely comes from the daytime.

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Vincent Van Gogh once said, "I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day." Perhaps he just may be right. Though the night may be riddled with some form of restlessness, or something of a similar flavor, whatever it holds, there's no denying that there's something bewitching about nighttime. . . and I often am under its spell.

LIFELONG PRAYER AND VERSE TO REMEMBER

Dear Lord,
As I place my life in Your hands, I will trust You to be faithful. Amen.

~ A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. - Proverbs 16:9 - ~

SINGLE LADIES

Family curse? Call it what you will, but there’s got to be some explanation behind the perpetual state of singleness that my sister, my cousin, and myself find ourselves in. Out of the ten cousins on my mom’s side of the family, every last one of the seven boys are taken while we three girls remain as unattached as can be. Did I mention that we ladies are all in our mid-to-late twenties? Or that even our cousin who’s still in high school is in a relationship – and we aren’t? What’s happening here?! The crème de la crème is that other family members have not only taken note of it but have spent time pondering the matter. Recently my oldest male cousin (who’s getting married this April) posted this gem on my sister’s Facebook wall (yes, I just referred to Facebook) entirely out of the blue:

“Don't worry about the whole being single thing. You are dealing with some kind of higher force. I discovered this one cold winter evening when I realized that every male on the Fisher side of the family is in a relationship and every female is single. Fisher Phenomenon at its finest.”

Whatever it is, I hope that this ‘phenomenon’ is nearing an end, partially because I think we girls are pretty darn amazing and deserve to find someone special, but even more so because I don’t want any other people in my family to have to spend a “cold winter evening” mulling over our singledom.

In the meantime, it’s time to enjoy Christmas festivities, and then it’s off to Bavaria. . . I mean, Leavenworth. . .to spend quality time with the Fisher fam., including every single significant other of the male cousins. Of course. If you feel inclined to get me something for Christmas, a nice gentleman for me, or my sister, or cousin, would be more than welcome.


Merry Christmas to you and yours!

REALITY CHECK

No one's stopping you but yourself. That's something I casually mentioned to my sister in response to something trivial the other day. As soon as the words were out of my mouth though I no longer saw them in the context of our conversation, but rather was convicted by the reality that that's exactly what was happening on a larger scale with some matters of my own life. My own words have found me guilty as charged. I don't want to be one of those people who lives by the saying "do as I say, not as I do," even more, I don't want to be responsible for holding myself back. I want to lead by example. When I give advice to others, I want them to have confidence in it, in me, because I veered away from hypocrisy and took my own advice. Most importantly, I want to have faith in myself, in my dreams, and in God's plan for me and to not be the one stopping myself. I know that I've referred to it before, but I think that this quote is relevant and worthy of a re-read, and so I sign off with this, my newly adopted mantra: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined," (thanks Mr. Thoreau).

HERE COMES THE SUN

I wasn't so fond of my day yesterday. Today though, today I found joy in the simple beauty all around me. I mean, how could you not find joy with things like these?

It was just what the doctor ordered.